Speaking of Drones ....

Hold my beer..... watch thisBronze Supporter

So, last night, my wife swears she saw something in the sky. I was already asleep, and she was out letting the dog out, when she see's a light, turns on her flashlight towards it, and tracks it flying very near.

Either it was a drone, or a UFO, well obviously be definition it was a UFO, just maybe not the alien type. Who knows.

She showed me in detail it's flight path, and characteristics, and it could very well have been a drone of some sort. Flying over our property, and two of the neighbors property. Nothing super normal in flight profile, that could not have been done with an earthly craft, but over all very disconcerting.

By the time she tells me about it, (awaken from sleep) it was long gone.

She was definitely shaken up by the experience.
The odd things about it were that it was using lighting, and had obviously not been adorned for stealth. One light (she said) looked like the moon showing through the trees, but when she flashed it with a flash light, that light went off, but other multi-colored lights stayed on, during the entire flight. Kind of creepy.

She said it was over all a round shape, with two small protrusions left and right, off of the circle.

Dog ran back in the house, but minutes later was barking and wanting to get back out.
The sound it made, that she described could easily have been electric motors.
She described it as harmonic and then heard the sound of critters running away from the house.

Well-Known Member

someone flying a quad at night. pretty likely the lights are automatic. some of the more expensive ones will have lights that come on when the light level is low while less sophisticated ones require a switch for them. not really any harm in what they were doing unless they were looking through windows but thats pretty unlikely.

Hold my beer..... watch thisBronze Supporter

Well, by what she described, that is what I also thought. Now, just to figure out, why whomever would have flown over what is obviously private property, and if they do while I am up, they are going to lose it. Read shot down.

Well-Known Member

i doubt they had malicious intent and likely had no interest in looking at people. its probably one of your neighbors flying around the neighborhood out of curiosity of what it looks like over head at night. most people who have them generally fly them around their own homes and occasionally fly them in public areas. i wouldnt recommend shooting it down because you could be buying them a new one along with criminal charges for unlawful discharge. the person will have video of it and you wont get away with it. if its looking through windows you will have a much easier time doing something about it but if they arent, dont worry too much.

Gold SupporterGold Supporter

"i doubt they had malicious intent and likely had no interest in looking at people."
This is so cute.Do you fly drones over others' houses too?
In the city ,no don't shoot it down. With what you described,on 20 acres,I'd light it up with some3 1/2" goose loads
And hope the MF comes looking for it

Well-Known Member

quads have a flight time of about 10 minutes. the person doesnt have the time to loiter for more than a few minutes. count on it being a neighbor and start asking them which one it is. when you find out who, tell them to stop. if they dont after that, shoot it down.

there have already been cases of people shooting them down and getting successfully sued. if you go out there and take it down, you will be buying a shiny new one for the owner and they are not cheap. now if it were to crash on your property and you find it, it is now yours. considering the person is flying at night, be aware that they have a FPV camera system, which means the quad is not recording video, it's transmitting video to a receiver. if they get footage of you taking it out of the sky it's theft. if you get creative and find a way to take it down without showing anything (including how it happened), then they cant do anything about it. they will know if you shot it down. maybe look up radio jamming signals. just dont do it unless you cant get the person to stop with a simple request.

for the record i dont fly anything over peoples homes, nor do i own anything that could. i do however feel that in general there is nothing wrong with it. of course we have seen in the news there are some people who have found ways to make it wrong. you should also know that they have to fly pretty close to get a good image of you or anything else smaller than a car. even the good cameras that are light enough to put on them have trouble with good resolution. around 50 feet $1500 cameras show you as little more than an ant and the images barely get any better past that.

im all about personal privacy but you will need to consider this when you decide to take a legal risk that could potentially cost you thousands of dollars. if youre on 20 acres, there are only so many people who are close enough to fly to your house. try knocking on doors before knocking things out of the sky. it could save you a lot of money.

Well-Known Member

With any due respect to the poster above, my group recently used a Phantom quad drone equipped with a 2 watt 2.4Ghz amplifier over a target house and clearly recorded details down to 2 meters from (EDIT some unknown and legal altitude)... feet up.

So YMMV, maybe it depends on your equipment, since not everything is built the same.

Gold SupporterGold Supporter

I would say they would be hard pressed to sue you when you are 'spying' and looking in my windows
Hey, maybe get a court subpena to heck his house for video? Bet he would stop the suit.
Besides,I had the shot gun out because someone was running around out side my house shooting something in the sky.Thing almost hit me when it fell and the person ran off

for the record i dont fly anything over peoples homes, nor do i own anything that could. i do however feel that in general there is nothing wrong with it

Click to expand...

For the record I think this makes you a creep and a very disrespectful person.

Well-Known Member

well mj i think you are being a bit selective in what you decided to take from what i said. you and i clearly feel the same about looking into windows. you also are going on the assumption that you will not be recorded destroying someone elses property that they are flying through public airspace. unfortunately for you, the courts have ruled that you do not own the air above your home. people that own these things should be respectful of others privacy and if you dont want them flying over your home, they should stop when asked but you will not get away with shooting it down.

also Doc i think that you and i said the same thing as far as resolution. am i wrong?

Well-Known Member

youre sounding dangerously similar to a liberal. rash decisions based on unfounded emotions without any logical thought. the fact is, they are not going to get an image good enough to give them kicks without getting close enough for you to throw a rock at it. if its that close you may well get away with it being dangerously close to you. otherwise you are just making a bad choice.

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